Safety shoe toecap reinforcing material having pressure dispersing structure

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a reinforcing material which is attached to a toecap embedded in a safety shoe so as to ensure the convenience and safety of a worker. The reinforcing material is combined with the toecap embedded in the safety shoe used generally so as to protect portions of an instep and toes of a worker, wherein a portion of the reinforcing material contacting with the instep is made of a flexible material such that a foot is comfortable during movement, and the reinforcing material having the portion made of the flexible material is combined with the safety shoe to effectively protect the foot, thereby improving the safety and efficiency of work performed by the worker.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of International Patent Application PCT/KR2018/000672 filed on Jan. 15, 2018, which designates the United States and claims priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2017-0006993 filed on Jan. 16, 2017, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a reinforcing material which is attached to a toecap embedded in a safety shoe so as to ensure the convenience and safety of a worker.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Generally, a safety shoe has a toecap embedded therein so as to protect a foot of a worker from risk factors in a harsh environment such as an industrial site.

Particularly, when an object falls on an instep of a worker, the embedded toecap protects a foot of a worker. The embedded toecap is generally made of a metal material so as to cover toes and is configured to have a shape of a dome structure including a space part capable of housing a portion of the toes.

When an object falls on an instep of a worker or when a hard object hits the worker's toes, the toecap effectively protects toes of the worker. However, in terms of the structure of the toecap, the shape of the toecap cannot properly respond to variable postures of a worker, so that the toecap may cause pain on an instep or a portion of the toes of the worker.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, a portion of an instep of a worker frequently contacts with an upper end part of the toecap in a working site in which behavior of kneeling down occurs frequently, and as shown in an upper drawing of FIG. 8, side surface parts of a little toe and a big toe frequently contact with side end parts of the toecap, which causes a worker pain, thus work efficiency is considerably decreased.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and is intended to provide a safety shoe reinforcing material which is combined with a toecap embedded in an existing safety shoe and protects an instep, or a little toe and side surface parts of a foot such that pain occurring during wearing is reduced or eliminated.

In order to accomplish the above object, a safety shoe toecap reinforcing material having a pressure dispersing structure according to the present invention includes:

an End connecting member 210 combined with an inner surface of the toecap 120 along an end surface 130 formed in a shape of an open dome on a rear portion of the toecap 100, a part of the End connecting member being exposed in a rear direction of the toecap; and

a pressure dispersing member 220 having a thickness corresponding to a thickness of the toecap and combined with an upper part of the End connecting member 210 exposed in the rear direction of the toecap along the end surface 130 of the toecap.

In this case, the End connecting member 210 may support the pressure dispersing member 220, and

pressure applied to the instep by the end surface 130 of the toecap according to movement of the foot of a wearer of the safety shoe may be sequentially buffered and dispersed by the End connecting member 210 and the pressure dispersing member 220.

The safety shoe toecap reinforcing material according to the present invention may be attached to the toecap 100 provided in a known safety shoe and may be used so as to protect a foot by covering toes and an instep.

In this case, the End connecting member 210 may include an upper support surface 211 exposed in the rear direction from an upper end surface 131 of the toecap so as to have a length of at least the thickness of the toecap; and a side extension surface 212 having an exposed surface of at least the thickness of the toecap extending from the upper support surface 211 to a side end surface 132 of the toecap.

Meanwhile, the pressure dispersing member 220, which is a flexible tube, may be provided by having multiple air tubes 221 formed so as to correspond to a curved shape of the end surface 130 combined with the rear portion of the toecap.

In addition, the pressure dispersing member 220 may be an air band 222 of an elastic material that has multiple air pipes 223 embedded therein.

In this case, each of the air pipes 223 may be formed so as to have a diameter gradually decreasing in the rear direction, and

the air band 222 may have flat side filling surfaces 224 provided on opposite side surfaces thereof.

According to the present invention, the reinforcing material is combined with the toecap embedded in a safety shoe used generally so as to protect portions of an instep and toes of a worker, wherein a portion of the reinforcing material contacting with the instep of the worker is made of a flexible material such that a foot is comfortable during movement, and the reinforcing material having the portion made of the flexible material is combined with the safety shoe to effectively protect the foot, thereby improving the safety and efficiency of work performed by the worker.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a safety shoe toecap reinforcing material according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of FIG. 1 and an enlarged sectional view of a joined part of the toecap and the reinforcing material.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a state in which a foot of a worker's is pressed by the toecap when an instep of the worker is bent.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a transformed state of a pressure dispersing member when the instep of a worker is bent.

FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of a working situation in which toes and the instep are bent.

FIG. 8 is a view shown by comparing a bottom view of a toecap, which is not provided with the reinforcing material, with a bottom view of the toecap, which is provided with the reinforcing material.

FIG. 9 is a view showing a combining process of the toecap and an End connecting member.

FIG. 10 is an embodiment of the pressure dispersing member, and FIGS. 11 and 12 are views of another embodiment of the pressure dispersing member.

FIG. 13 is a side sectional view of a safety shoe toecap reinforcing material according to the embodiment of FIG. 12.

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE NUMERALS IN THE DRAWINGS

100: Toecap

110: Outer surface

120: Inner surface

130: End surface

131: Upper end surface

132: Side end surface

200: Reinforcing material

210: End connecting member

211: Upper support surface

212: Side extension surface

220: Pressure dispersing member

221: Air tube

222: Air band

223: Air pipe

224: Side filling surfaces

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinbelow, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the scope of the claims of the present invention should be understood by the claims described hereinafter. In addition, descriptions of detailed descriptions of the known technology making the gist of the present invention unclear will be omitted.

In description of the present invention, the limitation of directions of “an upper portion”, “a lower portion”, and “a rear portion”, etc. is made relative to a human foot, and accordingly, a toe side indicates a front portion, a heel side indicates a rear portion, an instep side indicates an upper portion, and a sole side indicates a lower portion.

The present invention relates to a safety shoe toecap reinforcing material 200 which is attached to a toecap 100 provided in a safety shoe so as to protect a foot by covering the toes and the instep.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the safety shoe toecap reinforcing material according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a top plan view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a bottom view of FIG. 1.

A rear portion of the toecap 100 to which the reinforcing material of the present invention is attached is configured to have a shape of an open dome as shown in FIG. 1, and an end surface 130 of an open portion of the toecap is configured to have a thickness equivalent to a thickness of the toecap. In this case, the end surface of the instep side, which is an upper part of the end surface 130, is referred to as an upper end surface 131, and the end surface contacting with a side surface of a big toe or a little toe, which is a side part of the end surface 130, is referred to as a side end surface 132.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the reinforcing material 200 includes an End connecting member 210 and a pressure dispersing member 220.

FIG. 9 is a view showing a combining process of the toecap and the End connecting member.

As shown in FIG. 9, the End connecting member 210 is combined with an inner surface of the toecap 120 along the end surface 130 of the toecap and a part thereof is exposed in a rear direction of the toecap, and accordingly, when an end of the toecap, which is hard, contacts with a foot of a wearer thereof, pain occurring on the foot is decreased. That is, an edge of a part on which the inner surface of the toecap 120 is connected to the end surface 130 is sharp and hard, and as shown in FIGS. 5 and 8, skin damage and pain are caused by physical friction occurring on the part contacting directly with a foot. In this case, when a portion of the End connecting member 210 is attached to the inner surface 120 of the toecap adjacent to the end surface 130, and a portion thereof is combined with the toecap so as to be exposed in the rear direction of the end surface of the toecap, the edge of the part on which the inner surface 120 is connected to the end surface 130 does not directly contact with the foot due to the End connecting member 210 so as to mitigate pain. To obtain the effect, the End connecting member 210 is formed to have a predetermined thickness and is required to be made of a flexible and elastic material without being folded.

Meanwhile, the End connecting member 210 may be divided into an upper support surface 211 exposed in the rear direction from the upper end surface 131 of the toecap and a side extension surface 212 exposed in the rear direction from the side end surface 132 of the toecap.

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of FIG. 1 and an enlarged sectional view of a joined part of the toecap and the reinforcing material.

As shown in FIG. 4, preferably, a length s1 of the upper support surface 211 exposed in the rear direction corresponds to the thickness t1 of the toecap, or is at least the thickness. However, when the length s1 is shorter than a horizontal width f1 of the pressure dispersing member 220, flexibility of the pressure dispersing member 220 can be sufficiently obtained when a foot is bent, and accordingly, the relation of t1≤s1<f1 follows. Accordingly, the upper support surface 211 is combined with a portion of an upper bottom surface of the pressure dispersing member 220 and supports the pressure dispersing member. That is, the upper support surface prevents the pressure dispersing member 220 from deviating downward and performs a function of combining the toecap 100 with the pressure dispersing member 220 without an additional adhesive applied between the end surface 130 of the toecap 100 and the pressure dispersing member 220. More preferably, in terms of cost reduction and securing the flexibility of the pressure dispersing member 220, the upper support surface is combined with an air tube 221 a, which will be described later, in relation of t1=s1.

The side extension surface 212 is provided by an exposed surface of the End connecting member extending from the upper support surface 211 to the side end surface 132 of the toecap, and preferably, thickness of the side extension surface is also configured to be at least the thickness t1 of the toecap. In this case, when a length s2 extending in the rear direction of the toecap is provided to be longer than the horizontal width f1 of the pressure dispersing member 220 (s2>f1), the side extension surface 212 may more effectively protect side surfaces of a big toe and a little toe and performs a function of having multiple air tubes 221 constituting the pressure dispersing member 220 combined with a side surface thereof, thereby maintaining a stable structure of the reinforcing material 200 and improving durability thereof.

Due to the above-mentioned configuration, the End connecting member 210 firstly disperses pressure applied to the instep by the end surface 130 of the toecap according to movement of a foot of a wearer of the safety shoe. The End connecting member disperses pressure applied to a foot by increasing an area of a portion on which the edge of the end surface 130 contacts directly with the foot (since pressure is in reverse proportion to an area).

In addition, due to buffering operation of the pressure dispersing member 220, pressure is secondly dispersed, which is caused by the following structure of the pressure dispersing member 220.

The pressure dispersing member 220 has a thickness corresponding to the thickness t1 of the toecap and is combined with an upper part of the End connecting member 210 exposed to the rear direction of the toecap along the end surface 130 of the toecap. However, the End connecting member 210, the pressure dispersing member 220, and the toecap 100 are integrally combined with each other while the pressure dispersing member 220 contacts with the end surface 130 by being attached to the End connecting member 210 instead of being directly combined with the end surface 130. Although this is because a lower surface of the pressure dispersing member 220 and the inner surface of the toecap 100 are attached to the End connecting member 210, the pressure dispersing member 220 may be directly attached to the end surface 130 of the toecap when required.

FIG. 10 is an embodiment of the pressure dispersing member, and FIG. 11 is a view of another embodiment of the pressure dispersing member.

As shown in FIG. 10, the pressure dispersing member 220 may include the multiple air tubes 221. Each of the air tubes 221 made of materials having flexibility and elasticity is configured to be a tube allowing air to flow therethrough. That is, the multiple straw-shaped elastic air tubes 221 (preferably 4 to 5) are combined with each other, are bent so as to cover the upper part of the End connecting member 210 exposed in the rear direction of the toecap while corresponding to a curved shape of the end surface 130, and are attached to the End connecting member 210. In this case, an outer diameter f2 of each of the air tubes 221 is designed to correspond to the thickness t1 of the toecap or to be at least the thickness (f2≥t1). Accordingly, when the toecap is attached to uppers of a shoe, the toecap performs a function of improving wearability by filling a space between the uppers and the upper support surface 211. Particularly, when the upper support surface 211 decreases impact caused by the end of the toecap 100, a synergy effect due to the pressure dispersing member 220 may occur. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 7, when a heel is lifted so as to bend a foot, the uppers on the instep are bent, which may stimulate the instep, but as shown in FIG. 6, the pressure dispersing member 220 performs a function of buffering the stimulus, thereby considerably improving wearability.

Meanwhile, as described above, the pressure dispersing member 220 may be provided by the multiple air tubes 221 being combined with each other, each of which is independent of each other, but as shown in FIG. 11, an air band 222 of an elastic material such as a silicone may be configured to have multiple air pipes 223 embedded therein and to have at least the thickness t1 of the toecap. Although thickness of an end part of the air band 222 contacting with the end surface 130 of the toecap may be designed to be the same thickness as the thickness t1 of the toecap, the thickness of the end part of the air band is preferably designed to be slightly larger than the thickness t1 of the toecap when a characteristic of a silicone material, which is compressible, is considered. The reason of having the embedded air pipes 223 as essential components is that cost reduction, an improved buffering effect, and efficient response to various thicknesses of the toecap are realized. Since normal rubber bands are required to be used with several bands added on each other, workability decreases, and the integrally provided thick rubber band has low-quality cushion due to not having an air layer.

According to another embodiment of the pressure dispersing member 220, as shown in FIG. 12, the air band 222 of an elastic material having the air pipes 223 embedded therein is configured to have at least the thickness t1 of the toecap, wherein each of the air pipes 223 is configured to become thinner rearward (a diameter thereof becoming smaller). In other words, when three air pipes 223 a, 223 b, and 223 c are provided, thickness of each of the air pipes (a diameter of each of the air pipes) has the following relation.

A first air pipe 223 a>a second air pipe 223 b>a third air pipe 223 c

The first air pipe 223 a adjacent to the end surface 130 of the toecap is configured to be thick such that a space between the end surface 130 and the instep is filled for the instep not to be in direct contact with the end surface 130, whereas the thickness of the air pipe becomes thinner toward the third air pipe 223 c so as to obtain more space in which a foot can be seated and so as to be more flexibly transformed according to movement of a foot as shown in FIG. 6.

That is, the air band having the air pipes becoming thin gradually rearward is configured to gradually disperse pressure applied to the instep by the end surface 130 of the toecap when the instep is bent.

In addition, as for configuration which may be commonly applied to the embodiment of FIGS. 11 and 12, the air pipes 223 do not extend to side end parts of the air band 222 and the air band 222 may have flat side filling surfaces 224 provided on opposite side surfaces thereof.

In this case, opposite end parts of the air pipes 223 are preferably connected to the side filling surfaces 224 in curved shapes in terms of wearability. More preferably, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, thickness of each of the air pipes is designed to become thinner toward the end parts of each of the air pipes 223. Accordingly, the air pipes 223 are more efficiently connected to the side filling surfaces 224, which may maximize wearability.

Each of the side filling surfaces 224 is designed to have at least the thickness t1 of the end surface 130 of the toecap. Preferably, the thickness of the side filling surface is designed to be slightly larger than the thickness t1 of the end surface of the toecap so as to correspond to the thickness t1 of the end surface of the toecap when the side filling surface 224 is compressed. Furthermore, the thickness of the side filling surface 224 contacting with the end surface 130 is at least t1, and when the thickness of the side filling surface becomes thinner in the rear direction, a space in which a foot is seated is better obtained, and thus best wearability can be provided to a worker.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims. 

1. A safety shoe toecap reinforcing material (200) having a pressure dispersing structure, the reinforcing material attached to the toecap (100) provided in a safety shoe so as to protect a foot by covering toes and an instep, the reinforcing material (200) comprising: an End connecting member (210) combined with an inner surface of the toecap (120) along an end surface (130) formed in a shape of an open dome on a rear portion of the toecap (100), a part of the End connecting member being exposed in a rear direction of the toecap; and a pressure dispersing member (220) having a thickness corresponding to a thickness of the toecap and combined with an upper part of the End connecting member (210) exposed in the rear direction of the toecap along the end surface (130) of the toecap, wherein the End connecting member (210) supports the pressure dispersing member (220), and pressure applied to the instep by the end surface (130) of the toecap according to movement of the foot of a wearer of the safety shoe is sequentially buffered and dispersed by the End connecting member (210) and the pressure dispersing member (220).
 2. The reinforcing material of claim 1, wherein the pressure dispersing member (220), which is a flexible tube, is provided by having multiple air tubes (221) formed so as to correspond to a curved shape of the end surface (130) combined with the rear portion of the toecap.
 3. The reinforcing material of claim 1, wherein the End connecting member (210) includes: an upper support surface (211) exposed in the rear direction from an upper end surface (131) of the toecap so as to have a length of at least the thickness of the toecap; and a side extension surface (212) having an exposed surface of at least the thickness of the toecap extending from the upper support surface (211) to a side end surface (132) of the toecap.
 4. The reinforcing material of claim 1, wherein the pressure dispersing member (220) is an air band (222) of an elastic material that has multiple air pipes (223) embedded therein.
 5. The reinforcing material of claim 4, wherein each of the air pipes (223) is formed so as to have a diameter gradually decreasing in the rear direction, and the air band (222) has flat side filling surfaces (224) provided on opposite side surfaces thereof. 